wild one - steve harrington

old tricks

Roxy awoke, groggy and still half asleep. Her arm was messily bandaged, and when she looked in the mirror, her cheek had three bandaids on it. She ripped them off, thinking they made her look childish. Hiding her face in her hands for a minute, she pushed yesterday out of her head and began working on figuring out where in hell she was. 

Looking around, she saw a white metal bed frame, curled into fancy spirals. The sheets she slept on, now slightly red where her arm wasn't cleaned properly, was a floral silk-type material she wasn't used to. Roxy's heart hammered, ready to rush out into the hall - did Steve come to get her and for some reason, she was in his parents' room? Turning around, there were some girly decorations on the dresser and a poster of Tom Cruise. 

'How are you feeling?' A gentle, if not a little afraid, voice came from the door. Roxy whipped her head around, and felt strangely relieved to see Nancy there. 

'Oh, hey. Yeah.' Roxy said, awkwardly. There was no animosity, as far as she was concerned, but they weren't the best of friends. 'Did I sleep here?' Nancy nodded.

'Max scratched the car on the way in. They told me about Billy. I'm sorry.' Nancy explained, sweetly. Roxy tried her best to smile, not thinking that she may as well be dead right about now because her father was really going to kill her for messing up the car. 

'Thanks. For-' Roxy gestured to her arm and to the bed- 'you didn't have to. But thanks.' Roxy didn't know what else to say. She was about to ask Nancy where Steve could be, but if Nancy knew more about Roxy's boyfriend's whereabouts, then she didn't want to know the answer. Roxy turned toward the mirror and rubbed the skin under her eyes, and started to pull the knots out of her hair. 

Nancy handed her a hairbrush and pulled out a drawer with some makeup in it. 'Here. I've got to go, but they're all downstairs in the basement.' Nancy said, turning to leave. 

'Hey, Nancy.' Roxy called, and Nancy turned back around. 'Thank you. Really.' Roxy took a deep breath. 'And... I'm sorry.' Nancy smiled. 

'It's okay.' Nancy said, and Roxy believed that she meant it. For a second, everything really was okay. 

And then of course, Nancy left, Roxy brushed her hair and put some makeup on so she didn't resemble the corpse bride, and slowly walked downstairs, into the reality that everything was not, in fact, okay.

'Bottom line is, they're not here.' Roxy heard Lucas say as she walked down the stairs. She somehow carefully avoided everyone else in the house. 'It's up to us.' 

'Up to us to do what, exactly?' Mike asked, not hearing Roxy coming down the stairs. 

'Find Billy, and stop him.' Lucas said, as if it was obvious. 

'Easier said than done.' Roxy pointed out, swinging an arm around Mike's shoulder as she spoke. He squealed, apparently very startled. Roxy chuckled - she was still too tired and stressed to actually laugh - before going to lie on the couch next to Lucas. 'Where's Max?' 

'Bathroom, with El.' Lucas told her. Roxy nodded, before closing her eyes. 

'Are you okay?' Will asked her quietly. Roxy smiled at him. 

'Yeah. I just want it over.' She answered him. It was silent for a few seconds, before Mike started talking again. This boy does not shut up, Roxy thought. 

'Look, great that we have to find Billy, and even if we do, and that's a pretty big 'if', what will we do then?' He paced up and down the room in front of them. 

'We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time.' Lucas replied, sounding very sure of himself and his plan. 

'Okay, then what?' Mike asked. He was starting to get on Roxy's nerves. 

'Then we win.' 

'No, see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win. We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before and he just came right back. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer.' Mike argued. 

'And how do you propose we do that?' Roxy asked, tiredly. 'I get that we're buying time going around in circles or whatever you want to call it, but how the hell do we plan on killing something that's everywhere and nowhere at the same time?' Her voice started to raise. 'Sorry. I'm not annoyed at you. I'm just annoyed.' She clarified, standing up to look at the posters in an attempt at distracting herself from the situation. 

'I don't know how we do that.' Mike said in defeat.

'Maybe El does.' Will suggested. The boys all looked quizzically to the bathroom, and Roxy giggled.

'What are they still doing in there?' Mike asked, quietly, as if he was scared to be heard. 

'They're girls.' Roxy told him, thinking that it was pretty self-explainatory. 

'Girls just like... hanging out in bathrooms.' Lucas said, going to stand next to Will, eating cereal out of the box. He angled it at Roxy, and she lifted the box from his hands and ate some herself. 

'They're conspiring against me.' Mike said, in a quick and hushed voice. Roxy let out a bout of laughter, knowing it was probably true. 

'That's what you're concerned about now?' Will complained, and with good reason. 

'It's not my main concern, it's just a sub-concern.' Mike explained. Roxy rolled her eyes as Will did too. 

'Look, kid, we figure this out and help save the world, again, and before you know it, you guys will be married.' She said, shrugging. 

For a reason she didn't bother to think about in that moment, what she'd just said reminded her of Steve. Taking the cereal box with her under her right arm, she put another handful of Cocoa Puffs into her mouth and, understanding that Mr and Mrs Harrington were away again, she dialled Steve's home number. 

There was no answer.